The past 10 days
Why, hello, livejournal readers! It's definitely time for an update, since the past 10 days have been busy and such.
So, when I last left you in the "life" updates, I was furiously typing away at a final paper at 4 AM while hiding out in the closed library (early on the morning of Friday the 11th). The morning became eventful when custodians started to come in for their shifts, and we ended up hiding underneath a staircase in the basement, working more on our papers, and half-sleeping for about an hour. We strolled out of the library at 8, I finished my paper in my room, took a final, and packed a little before dinner. I went to Target afterwards because I needed new work pants, so I lost valuable packing time, and ended up staying up until about 3 AM before I just couldn't do any more, since I had basically pulled an all-nighter in the library.
Saturday the 12th- Got up at 7:30-ish to finish packing, parents arrived around 1-ish, we loaded up the cars and went home. Not too much to report there other than a lot of heavy lifting (the giant duffel bag that I got for Christmas was stuffed to capacity, and looking back, I'm not sure how I managed to get it downstairs).
I then decided that this time, I'm actually going to completely unpack. Usually I kind of get out the things I need, but have half-full boxes and suitcases taking up my room all summer. I realized, however, that I couldn't completely unpack because there was nowhere to PUT anything- my room was overrun by piles of old things that I didn't bring to school. So, of course I decided to do a full scale mass cleanout. I got rid of pretty much everything out of my drawers, a lot from my shelves, etc. Some highlights from the things that I uncovered:
-A lot of cards wishing me a happy 9th and 10th birthday, and a letter from my grandma saying she was proud of her "seven-and-a-half-year-old."
-A cassette tape of the Macarena
-A softcover little book entitled "Skating Superstars" that was published in 1996 and informed us to "keep a lookout for up-and-coming young figure skater Irina Slutskaya from Russia."
-What looks like every note my friends and I ever passed during middle school, although I'm sure it was only 25% of them.
It's still not completely done, since I had to devote so much time to getting rid of things and making room that I'm just now getting to actually unpacking the current stuff. Once everything's organized and clean, I'm going to redo how it's decorated and such...not anything major, just putting up the things that I have up in my room at school and everything.
I started back at work on Wednesday night (worked then and Thursday). It went well and nothing spectacular to note, really. It's always nice to see everyone there again and catch up. Some of the people whom I used to talk with the most aren't there anymore, so that's kind of sad, but there are a lot of new faces as well, so some great people to get to know, I'm sure. Working there on breaks is interesting because each time that I work there (each summer or January) has its own flavor to it, especially the summers. One not-so-good thing, however, is that I gave myself the worst paper cut of my life on the pizza boxes Wednesday night, and it has seriously yet to completely close up. Gross.
On Friday night, I went to see my brother in his play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, at the high school. He gave a great, hysterical performance of Bottom. :) I can't believe that he turned 18 on Wednesday and is graduating from high school in less than a month... where does the time go?!
Speaking of graduations, yesterday I paid a visit back to Smith for Allison's graduation. Amalia and Harper were still there as well, and, actually, also speaking of plays, we went to see her in her play, an avant garde piece called Cinders that was.... interesting. But well-performed by most, of course including Amalia. :) The graduation was this morning. It was raining, so it had to be held inside :(, but it was still awesome, in large part because Gloria Steinem was the commencement speaker! She spoke SO well, and was very inspiring about equality- it wasn't a "take down the man" type of speech at all, but more of a "strive for equality and peace" speech. She graduated from Smith 51 years ago, so there was kind of an overlying message of, look at how much things have improved for women since she was in college, and imagine how great things could get if our generation makes that same amount of progress. It was great to be able to hear her speak in person. And, of course... it was awesome to see Allison graduate!! I remember meeting her at the beginning of my first year (her sophomore year), and I can't believe she's all done. She's going to be in France next year, in grad school and in a teaching fellowship, and I'm sure she is going to have the time of her life.... but we will miss her! (However, I think I will always feel that she is very close to me, since I've managed to collect quite a few of her things, like a chair, star lights, and drawing stuff. ;))
So, not much else to report here, other than that my allergies are being annoying. Between pollen, dredging up dust in my room, and not being used to the smoke at work, I pretty much want to tear my nose off and rub my eyes forever!
I also have a few sets of pictures that I want to post... one of our campus my last week there when it was all sunny, one of my room once it's done, and one from today- after graduation, Amalia, Harper, and I went to a dairy farm, so there are pictures of cows and chickens.
So, when I last left you in the "life" updates, I was furiously typing away at a final paper at 4 AM while hiding out in the closed library (early on the morning of Friday the 11th). The morning became eventful when custodians started to come in for their shifts, and we ended up hiding underneath a staircase in the basement, working more on our papers, and half-sleeping for about an hour. We strolled out of the library at 8, I finished my paper in my room, took a final, and packed a little before dinner. I went to Target afterwards because I needed new work pants, so I lost valuable packing time, and ended up staying up until about 3 AM before I just couldn't do any more, since I had basically pulled an all-nighter in the library.
Saturday the 12th- Got up at 7:30-ish to finish packing, parents arrived around 1-ish, we loaded up the cars and went home. Not too much to report there other than a lot of heavy lifting (the giant duffel bag that I got for Christmas was stuffed to capacity, and looking back, I'm not sure how I managed to get it downstairs).
I then decided that this time, I'm actually going to completely unpack. Usually I kind of get out the things I need, but have half-full boxes and suitcases taking up my room all summer. I realized, however, that I couldn't completely unpack because there was nowhere to PUT anything- my room was overrun by piles of old things that I didn't bring to school. So, of course I decided to do a full scale mass cleanout. I got rid of pretty much everything out of my drawers, a lot from my shelves, etc. Some highlights from the things that I uncovered:
-A lot of cards wishing me a happy 9th and 10th birthday, and a letter from my grandma saying she was proud of her "seven-and-a-half-year-old."
-A cassette tape of the Macarena
-A softcover little book entitled "Skating Superstars" that was published in 1996 and informed us to "keep a lookout for up-and-coming young figure skater Irina Slutskaya from Russia."
-What looks like every note my friends and I ever passed during middle school, although I'm sure it was only 25% of them.
It's still not completely done, since I had to devote so much time to getting rid of things and making room that I'm just now getting to actually unpacking the current stuff. Once everything's organized and clean, I'm going to redo how it's decorated and such...not anything major, just putting up the things that I have up in my room at school and everything.
I started back at work on Wednesday night (worked then and Thursday). It went well and nothing spectacular to note, really. It's always nice to see everyone there again and catch up. Some of the people whom I used to talk with the most aren't there anymore, so that's kind of sad, but there are a lot of new faces as well, so some great people to get to know, I'm sure. Working there on breaks is interesting because each time that I work there (each summer or January) has its own flavor to it, especially the summers. One not-so-good thing, however, is that I gave myself the worst paper cut of my life on the pizza boxes Wednesday night, and it has seriously yet to completely close up. Gross.
On Friday night, I went to see my brother in his play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, at the high school. He gave a great, hysterical performance of Bottom. :) I can't believe that he turned 18 on Wednesday and is graduating from high school in less than a month... where does the time go?!
Speaking of graduations, yesterday I paid a visit back to Smith for Allison's graduation. Amalia and Harper were still there as well, and, actually, also speaking of plays, we went to see her in her play, an avant garde piece called Cinders that was.... interesting. But well-performed by most, of course including Amalia. :) The graduation was this morning. It was raining, so it had to be held inside :(, but it was still awesome, in large part because Gloria Steinem was the commencement speaker! She spoke SO well, and was very inspiring about equality- it wasn't a "take down the man" type of speech at all, but more of a "strive for equality and peace" speech. She graduated from Smith 51 years ago, so there was kind of an overlying message of, look at how much things have improved for women since she was in college, and imagine how great things could get if our generation makes that same amount of progress. It was great to be able to hear her speak in person. And, of course... it was awesome to see Allison graduate!! I remember meeting her at the beginning of my first year (her sophomore year), and I can't believe she's all done. She's going to be in France next year, in grad school and in a teaching fellowship, and I'm sure she is going to have the time of her life.... but we will miss her! (However, I think I will always feel that she is very close to me, since I've managed to collect quite a few of her things, like a chair, star lights, and drawing stuff. ;))
So, not much else to report here, other than that my allergies are being annoying. Between pollen, dredging up dust in my room, and not being used to the smoke at work, I pretty much want to tear my nose off and rub my eyes forever!
I also have a few sets of pictures that I want to post... one of our campus my last week there when it was all sunny, one of my room once it's done, and one from today- after graduation, Amalia, Harper, and I went to a dairy farm, so there are pictures of cows and chickens.